Tag Archives: Arsenal

Who is Arsenal’s greatest uncapped player?

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It’s that time of year again. Club football has disappeared as quickly as it came back. Two weeks of International friendlies, two weeks into the start of the new season.

A portion of the squad have jetted out to their respective national sides, with Mikel Arteta and co crossing their fingers for no major injuries to deal with once said teammates return. The remaining players left at London Colney would have continued to work away in a reduced group.

Mikel himself is no stranger to this feeling even as a player. It’s well documented how despite his classy, composed style of play he never received a call up for the Spanish National Team – but that’s life competing against Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alonso, Fabregas, Cazorla and co unfortunately!



Still, a lack of national team caps does not make a bad player. After all, John Lukic, Nigel Winterburn, Steve Bould, Rocky Rocastle, Alan Sunderland, Michael Thomas, Paul Davis, George Armstrong, Ray Parlour and Kevin Campbell – all players with thousands of Arsenal matches and memories under their belts combined, only accumulated a total of 31 England caps between all 10 of them.

So what I am curious about is which Arsenal players you personally believe should have collected many more international callups? Which players did you see excel at club level or thought had that type of potential but were always shunned for whatever reason at national team level?

One player staying in London during this interval is Gabriel Martinelli.

His most standout season in 2022/23 which saw him contribute to a combined 21 goals and assists helped secure him a consistent place in the Brazilian National Team squad. But as time has ticked by and his end product numbers have dropped, so has Gabi been from the most recent Brazil squad named by Dorival Júnior.

We really are now reaching that point of a crossroads for Martinelli’s Arsenal career.

With patchy returns on the pitch and Trossard and Sterling providing stronger competition than he’s ever had for a starting berth, will the Brazilian end up outlasting the older Trossard and the on-loan Sterling and push on at 23 years old, or will his game time dry up as the season goes on and leave him in the wilderness? Questions to be asked and questions for Gabi to answer in the next 8 months that could well shape his future at the club in general.

Aside from the aforementioned topics, the days are ticking down until the next installment of us against them. So would you give Raheem a first start away in a north London derby? What’s been your personal favourite NLD memory? And what would be your celebration if you bagged a 90th minute winner against them lot? Creative ideas for the celebs are most encouraged.

Nick

Why are Premier League set to investigate Chido Obi Martin deal?

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Chido Obi-Martin is on the verge of joining Manchester United.

The 16-year-old, who was nowhere near ready for the Arsenal first team opted to take a step down to Manchester United in the quest of fast tracking his journey to first team football, even if it means playing at a lower level.

As we blogged last week, Arsenal are better off without the youngster, whom is clearly being used by his handlers to make a quick buck at the detriment of his career.

The deal is subject to the Premier League 5 step investigation – or five-step review process as it is also known).

This process is nothing unique. It is an investigatory review that every transfer involving an academy player between two Category One academies goes through.

Before any academy player can be registered, the transfer must go through the review, which takes around 25 days to be completed. But what is the five-step review process?

Following Southampton receiving a suspended sentence back in 2022 for contacting academy players without permission, The Athletic outlined what is involved in the process:

Step 1: The new club submits a signed registration form to the Premier League.

Step 2: The Premier League appoints an independent third party (usually a law firm) to conduct “exit interviews” with the player, parents and both clubs. However, further interviews or requests for information are also permitted.

Step 3: The two clubs involved in the agreement, including the player’s parents, are required to sign a declaration that no financial or value-in-kind inducements have been utilised as a part of the move (including contra deals).

Step 4: Through the independent third party, a report is then produced for the Premier League’s board, coming up with a recommendation regarding the club’s application to register the player.

Step 5: The Premier League’s board can either approve or reject the registration application. They also have the autonomy to take disciplinary against the club if they were found to breach their youth development rules.

So what does this all mean?

Well firstly, absolutely nothing if the review finds Manchester United did nothing wrong in their recruitment of Chido Obi Martin.

If it is found that they have breached the rules, the player will still sign for Man U but they could face sanctions.

The Athletic article continues: Everton for example, were handed a two-year academy ban in November 2018 and a fine of £500,000 ($608,000) for offering incentives to a player and his family.

In 2017, Manchester City were fined £300,000 ($365,000) and also banned from signing academy players for two years after the Premier League found evidence of contact between City staff and family members. Incidentally, in that same month, Liverpool were deemed to have breached similar rules when offering inducements to a Stoke City player and subsequently banned from recruiting in the academy for 12 months. They were also fined £100,000 ($122,000).

Keenos

Arsenal set to kick off 2024/25 in America with notable absentees

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By the time I get round to writing tomorrow’s bog, our first pre-season game of the season would have happened.

I will not pretend that I have watched it. Like many of you I will not be getting up at 3:30am to watch a friendly. Instead I will rely on videos posted on Twitter to inform me how we played.

It is of course just pre-season, so results do not really matter. And this is even more prevalent when you consider just how many key players have not travelled to our little cousins over the pond.

A quick glace shows no David Raya, Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba, Gabriel, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz or Gabriel Martinelli. that is pretty much the core of our starting XI and I have probably missed others!

Another notable absentee is Charlie Patino.

Once labelled as the next big thing expected to come through Hale End, Patino highlights just how big the step up is from a academy football to senior. The youngster turns 21 in October and has had two middle-of-the-road loan spells in the Championship.

With a year left on his contract, he has clearly been left at home to focus on finding a permanent move away from us – which will likely see a a low transfer fee but a large sell on clause.

Some will point to Patino as “another youngster who Arteta has failed to develop”, but where we are a club that needs better than him. To be good enough to get your chance at Arsenal, you need to be showing the ability of Patino’s former England youth teammate Jude Bellingham.

Anyone that breaks through from the academy to Arsenal’s first team squad need to be players who have the talent to be pushing for senior international caps within 12 months. Patino is quite clearly a long way off this and his game and physicality has not enough since 2021.

And whilst some will blame is lack of progress on the club, we have to understand that players have different ceilings. It is more than just the clubs investment. You have the players own mentality, whether they want to put in the work, and also their talent ceiling. Being a top youth prospect does not automatically mean you will become a superstar. U18 level might have been the players peak!

Other Arsenal news is talk about Eddie Nketiah’s departure.

The details of the deal to Marseille feel like they have been leaked by us to generate interest elsewhere. Like with many of those we are looking to sell this summer, we are in no rush to be bullied into letting Nketiah go on the cheap.

We are not short of cash, have no PSR concerns, and Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Aaron Ramsdale and Reiss Nelson all have decent length contracts. If clubs do not want to pay our fee, we are more than happy to loan them out, enabling them to prove what we are demanding, with an eye on a permanent move in 2025.

Ultimately, it is better to loan a player out, and have 100% of their wages paid, then sell a player for less than their value just for some short term gratification.

Enjoy your Wednesday. The sun is finally showing through the clouds here in Essex!

Keenos